Assessment of environment of an area’s social vulnerability: ecological aspect

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of the current research is identification and integral estimation of ecological determinants of forming environment of an area’s social vulnerability (on the example of the oblasts of the Carpathian region of Ukraine).
 Methodology / approach. The empirics of environment of the social vulnerability based on the identification of ecological components is carried out by construction of commensurate series of indicators’ values through the normalizing for each group of parameters, in particular, within the selected set of areas (oblasts of the Carpathian region). The construction of time series of significance coefficients (calculation of weight coefficients) stipulates the use of the theory of sensitivity, while the calculation of the integral coefficient of the social vulnerability natural environment requires the multiplicative approach. 
 Results. The calculated integral coefficients of the natural environment of social vulnerability contributed to determining the living standards of the population of the natural resource sector and showed a significant socio-ecological divergence among the oblasts of the Carpathian region and Ukraine. In 2019, the highest values of integral coefficients of social vulnerability natural environment in the Carpathian region of Ukraine were observed in Ivano-Frankivsk (0.574) and Chernivtsi (0.391) oblasts. Ivano-Frankivsk oblast was the leader in that regard throughout the studied period. 
 Originality / scientific novelty. The methodological approach for analyzing the social vulnerability of the area has been improved, which, unlike the traditional ones based on determinants of the social, economic, and political environment, provides for a comprehensive analysis of the sensitivity of changes in the social vulnerability of the territory regarding the changes in the natural environment determinants.
 Practical value / implications. The paper offers and substantiates a methodological approach to the estimation of ecological determinants as the indicators of an area’s vulnerability growth, which serves as the information-analytical base for the development of the initiative-taking social vulnerability reduction policy.